Sunday, 29 October 2017

Thirteen Nights of Halloween Horror | Night Eleven - Scream (1996)

image credit: dimension films

Scream is the only film on this list that I have actually seen ... technically. I had never seen the film from the beginning before, I would always catch it on television towards the end, and that's where me and my Dad would watch it from. The same goes with I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Final Destination (2000). I'm glad that I choose to watch Scream now -- so close to watching Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street -- to notice and fully appreciate the self-referential, satirical take that the film explores of the horror genre.

The film was pioneering for its time because of this, spawning a 'post-Scream' genre of horror movies. It was the first in the slasher genre that actually had characters that reacted to horror movies as real audiences' did, and would discuss the tropes within the genre whilst also trying to subvert said tropes. Seeing the journey from the 70s to 90s horror is astounding, especially when its Wes Craven directing. I mean, if anyone had prior knowledge to how the slasher genre worked, it would be Craven.

Craven has the unique ability to throw you straight into the action. He does so in Nightmare, and again here in Scream. He ramps the tension with such ease that grips you from the first 30 seconds of whatever the 'cold open' is. Scream is longer than the average slasher horror flick (most are either 80 or 90 mins, Scream runs for 111 mins) and covers a lot of ground for what it's exploring; a group of characters creating their own horror movie within a horror movie.

It was also intriguing to finally watch Scream after watching the recent television adaptation in full. My best friend recommended the series for me to binge-watch on Netflix, and developers Jill Blotevogel, Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie play and toy with the emotions explored in the original film and expand it for a bigger universe on the smaller screen.